[tz] Time zone in Troll station

Tue Feb 4 17:05:49 UTC 2014

Hello IANA!
I have noticed that a number of research stations in Antarctica are listed in the tz database,
but none in the UTC-1 to UTC+1 range, even if there should be such stations.

One such station is the Troll station, which is operated year-around and belongs to Norway.
I had a mail conversation with the responsible authority, the Norwegian Polar Institute, about which time zone the Troll station actually uses.

The Troll station station officially uses UTC+0. During the dark season March-October, when no air or overland travel is done, it uses Norwegian summertime UTC+2 to simplify communication.
So I suggest you add a new zone called Antarctica/Troll

You may confirm this through Paul-Inge Flakstad at the Norwegian Polar Institute  ( flakstad at npolar.no )

Yours Sincerely
Bengt-Inge Larsson
Sweden

From: Paul-Inge Flakstad 
Sent: Monday, February 03, 2014 12:49 PM
To: Bengt-Inge Larsson 
Cc: Nettredaktør 
Subject: RE: Time zone in Troll station

Hi again Bengt-Inge,

I can now confirm that Troll is indeed at UTC/GMT 0.

Furthermore - should it be of interest to you - our overwintering team follow Norwegian time (including summer time) during the period they are alone at Troll (March-October). This practice is in place simply to make communication with the head office in Norway more convenient.

Thank you for asking us about this. Questions like this and feedback in general are important factors in identifying weak spots in our information channels. In this case, we will update our website with more correct information about the Troll station.

Best regards,

Paul-Inge Flakstad

From: Paul-Inge Flakstad 
Sent: 3. februar 2014 11:04
To: 'Bengt-Inge Larsson'
Cc: Nettredaktør
Subject: RE: Time zone in Troll station

Hi again Bengt,

I see now that my initial reply might have been misleading.

Our website page about Troll (where I pulled the info from) states that "Troll is 2 hours after Norwegian time". With Norway in GMT +1, this would implicitly place Troll in GMT -1. However, I believe this is wrong, and that you are correct; Several reliable(ish) sources place Troll in GMT 0, and I assume they base this on geographical coordinates. This also fits nicely into the "2 hours behind"-info on our website, provided one is comparing to Norwegian summer time.

I have sent an e-mail to our Antarctica department, asking for verification, and will come back to you with a definite answer as soon as I receive their reply.

Best regards,

Paul-Inge Flakstad

From: Bengt-Inge Larsson [mailto:bengt-inge at tele2.se] 
Sent: 31. januar 2014 17:33
To: Paul-Inge Flakstad
Subject: Re: Time zone in Troll station

That has to be 2 hours behind Norwegian Summer time, 

because I see that the clock on the web camera photos are one hour behind the Central European Winter time.

And some other source, unchecked reliability, says there is Greenwich Time in the Troll area. 

Or is it ?

Bengt-Inge Larsson

From: Paul-Inge Flakstad 

Sent: Wednesday, January 29, 2014 10:34 PM

To: Nettredaktør ; Bengt-Inge Larsson 

Subject: SV: Time zone in Troll station

Hi Bengt, Troll is 2 hours behind Norwegian time. Best regards,Paul-Inge FlakstadWeb developer, Norwegian Polar Instituteflakstad at npolar.no  Bengt-Inge Larsson <bengt-inge at tele2.se>: Hello!
Which time zone is kept at the Troll research station in Antarctica (what are the clocks there set at)?

Or what is the time difference to Norway ?

I ask since the time zone database used for computers contains some stations in Antarctica, only belonging to English speaking countries, USA; UK and Australia.
But not Troll, and it seems that Troll is in some other time zone, since it is not located near those listed bases.

Bengt Larsson
Göteborg
Sweden

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